State-Directed Terrorist Squads

A New Dimension in Warfare

John B. Wolf

Deception is the distortion of perceived reality. Masking, which is a form of deception, can be used to hide the identity of the instigator of an action while he simultaneously resorts to innuendo to bolster a more fearsome image. A hit man, hired by organized crime to “waste” (kill) an informer, is an example of how masking is used by the underworld.¹

In her book, The Business of Organized Crime: A Casa Nastra Family, Annelise Graebner Anderson said that “violence and a reputation for its effective use are useful in extortion, criminal monopolization of an industry and labor racketeering.” Organized crime, a tightly knit association of professional criminals, demands and gets complete dedication and unquestioned obedience by its members to orders, instructions, and commands from the ruling “boss.” Within every American organized-crime family, a key position is held by a person who is known as the “enforcer.” According to Anderson, “the role of enforcer, for example, is to arrange, when ordered to do so, the killing or maiming of members and sometimes nonmembers.” Usually, the enforcer does not do the killing or maiming; instead, the executioner engaged to do the hit (murder) is responsible for pulling the trigger. Killings are done in this fashion to mask the identity of the group that placed “the contract.”²

Mercenaries are often viewed as people who fight first for money and second for a foreign government. There are exceptions to this interpretation; for example, the Hessian conscripts who involuntarily were sent to fight against General George Washington’s Colonial army did not go to war to earn money.

Throughout history, a mercenary, sporting the uniform of the government he served, was easily recognized on the field of battle. His job often involved the envelopment of fortified positions and other infantry tasks that were needed to win a battle for the flag he represented. The Wild Geese, members of the Irish gentry who were defeated by the British at the Battle of the Boyne, refused to take the oath to King William and, instead, joined the armies that were engaged in combat on the European continent. Members of the French Foreign Legion and the Gurkha units in the British Army are staffed with persons who are often regarded as mercenaries.³

Surrogates, who are engaged by a foreign government to kill or kidnap a person, are neither mercenaries nor organized-crime hit men. These people exchange their services with an established government in return for money, weapons, supplies, and/or protection. They assume the notoriety for their actions, thereby serving to prevent anything but an inferential link being established to tie their sponsor to their exploits. Although some media accounts connected Mehmet Ali Agca to the attempt to kill Pope John Paul II, a plot thought to be inspired by Moscow, no “smoking gun” (concrete evidence) pointing to the role of the Soviet Union has been uncovered.

Source:

Link:

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4684-5628-8_2

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Date:
September 9, 2025
Categories:
State Sponsored Terrorism
Tags:
Boxes:
Press
Years:
2025
Persons:
META DATA
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